Selena follows the men into the chamber, I think we found that out. She was trying to control the goblins to attack Sandpoint en masse. We may never know for certain but it seems like nothing more than a hate fuel passion.
The room where you battled, and defeated, Nualia has wide stone ledges of red marble lining the curving walls of the room., which is still well light by burning skulls that sit in each corner. Three chairs sit in the room, and both stone ledges are covered with old books, scrolls, teeth, bones, scrimshaw artwork, jars of deformed creatures soaking in brine, taxidermied animals and limbs, and other strange objects. To the north, a round fountain filled with frothy blue water fills the room with the gentle sound of bubbling.
The room looks exactly the same as you remember leaving it, with nothing disturbed or out of place.
Tunder leads the group through the door that will take them into the areas that the group has not explored yet. "Everyone ready? Here we go." He opens the door.
Barek looks around the room, and then returns to the hallway. He nods to Tunder. "Go ahead. Open it."
Ready as I ever will be. Selena states as she clutches her staff.
Seldon will take a cursory scan of the books and scrolls before joining the others.
Seldon notes that among the many books dealing with Lamashtu and demonic transformation, are several journals and notes written by hand. A cursory examination reveals them to be written by Nualia herself.
The unexplored door opens onto a short 10' hall which ends in another door. Pushing that portal open as well, the group finds a the southern wing of this L-shaped ends at a pair of stone doors carved with the depiction of two skeletons reaching out to clutch a skull between them, while to the east the hallway narrows down to form a circular carving of what seems to bean immense stack of tens of thousands of gold coins that rises from floor to ceiling. The edges of these coins are carved wtih tiny, spiky runes.
Seldon will pocket Nualia's scribblings, and set the rest of the writings to the torch. Satisfied, he makes his way into the hallway, running his hands along the carved walls.
Before heading to the either the doors or the stacks of coins Selena moves to the corner of the L and detects magic targeting both areas mentioned. If not detects as magical then she will move closer to the giant stack of coins looking at the tiny spiky runes.
Perception
"Torag's Anvil we're rich! I told you we should come back here." Tunder goes to collect him some loot.
Barek enters the room and his attention actually goes to the image of the skeletons before seeing the towering stack of gold coins. "Uh, Tunder. Somehow I doubt a stack of gold coins in this place is a good idea." He tries to catch up to the dwarf and hold him back.
"Selena, Seldon, what the hell is that?"
Selena shrugs her shoulders, I have no idea Barek. I am trying to discover its nature as we speak. Nothing has revealed itself to me at the time. Tunder, I would wait a minute until my investigation is done before touching it. Who knows what trap or disturbance you might cause.
Tunder pulls up just short of touching the mounds of moolah.
The pile of gold does indeed detect as magical with a moderate aura. The spiky runes look like ancient Thassilonian symbols. Just what they are is unclear. No one sees or notices anything else.
Know arcane
Will save
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Selena ends her magical detection and looks at Tunder. The coins are magical but for the life of me I can't figure out why. I do not understand the symbols either even though I know they are Thassilonian. I could try to dispel the magic there but I don't know what that would do. I don't know of the giant stack of coins is a door, a trap, a treasure, or none of the above. I am sorry but I am at a serious loss here.
Rubbing her chin with her hand Selena goes through a list of options that she could try. (ie looking at my character's inventory.) Snapping her fingers she rummages through her pack for a scroll case. I may have an answer for you after all.
Pulling out a scroll of identify she uses that to identify the magic on the coins.
Smiling smugly at herself Selena is finally able to give an answer to the stack of coins. The spell in question is a highly potent illusion to make it look like we are seeing a pile of coins. While I can not see past the illusion I know that it is an illusion. There may be nothing there at all and we can walk right through it. Doubtful but it is a possibility.
Tunder looks crestfallen when he finds out the coins aren't real. "Here's one way to find out." Tunder slowly inches to and into the illusion.
+2 v spell, +5 bonus
Tunder really wants the gold to be there. Once he reaches the pile, he begins shoveling some into his pack. {nonchalant whistling)
Seldon continues his search of the nearby walls and floors, before suggesting that the party search for another passage.
Tunder continues to stuff his bags full of illusory gold, and Seldon searches the walls, but finds nothing. The only apparent exit from this room are the double doors to the south, which has the carving of the skeletons holding a skull over it. Looks ominous.
Will save with +5
Hold up guys, I think I may see a weakness in the illusion. Let me check it out. There is still a column of stone blocking the way though. Perhaps a doorway that I can open.
Selena then moves to where she thinks the i congruency lies and tries to step through the illusion and open the stone column.
The wizard, confident there is an illusion present, concentrates hard. Suddenly, she sees the piles of gold coins dissolve away, leaving only the stone cylinder blocking the doorway behind. Examining the cylinder, it still appears to be round, just made of solid stone. There are no runes, markings, openings or other significant features on it.
sighing in frustration Selena lets the others know what she sees. I can see past the coins to the stone wall column behind it. Yet try as I might I can not find anything to make me think it is more than just a column. Yet that makes no sense to me at all whatsoever. Why go through the process of making an elaborate illusion of a stack of giant coins only to cover up a column. There must be something I am missing here. If you guys want to keep going to the south I will keep searching and try to figure this conundrum out.
With the illusion at least bypassed selena casts detect magic again on the stone column to see if there is any other magical auras on it. She taps with her staff listening t see if it is hollow or an echo behind it. She taps on the walls to the side looking for anything of note. (Take 20 if everyone allows for a 21) Tunder you are better at searching than I am. Would you look to the side where there is no illusion to see if you find anything?
Not thinking it will work but trying different options at her disposal selena casts open/close on the column. Looking at the others, If you wish me to try I can take 15 minutes to prepare another spell of knock to see if it is a door that can be unlocked and then opened?
Selena tries to search, starting with Detect Magic. Besides the aura's already known, illusion, there is no more magic here. The round stone column sounds solid when she taps it with her staff.
She starts a thorough and detailed search of the walls starting near the cylinder and moving out.
Give her the time to do whatever she is doing. That gives me more time to get more gold.
Barek looks back and forth between Tunder who is trying to fill his pockets with gold and Selena who is claiming it's all an illusion. He squints and then approaches and tries to take a gold piece. "I don't know, Selena, seems pretty real to me."
Frustrated, not at the men but at herself for not being able to disprove the illusion selena continues to work on the secret here. I am telling you this column of coins is a fake.. She take out a real gold coin to hold it up to the light. This is a real gold coin. See its size. Take out one yourself and feel it. She how heavy it is. There is no way that someone made gold coins the size that you are seeing and stacked them up like this. I just don't know why someone would create an illusion of gold coins. What purpose is it? Even the most greedy bastards would give up trying to get the gold as a wasted effort after a few tries of retrieving the gold. The runes on the coins are ancient Thassalonian but they mean nothing to me even if I do understand the writings.
"Sometimes the mysteries of the ancients are beyond solving, Selena." the elf says, as gently as he can.
"Thassilonian coins are worth more due to their age and association with that ancient empire."
How very dwarven of you, mellonamin.
Seldon gives Tunder a wry smirk, but leaves his thought unvoiced.
Stamping her foot in frustration Selena still hears the wisdom in Sedon's voice. You are right but it still bothers me. If this search doesn't turn anything up then I will not waste anymore time now and we an continue on. Once the rest of the complex is explored then we can return here and I can try to use what remaining magics are available to figure this out. If that doesn't work then I will be forced to admit failure for now. If that is the case then perhaps once I have learned more I an return to understand this complexity.
Selena laughs at the logic of Tunder. I can't fault you for that but trust me when I say that it would be impractical to have coins that size.
"Tunder, come on. Stuff your pockets with the gold, but we need to see what else is here too." Barek himself pockets a few pieces, but he keeps an eye out for any dangers.
"OK. That's probably enough for now anyway." He pats his pack and begins searching the rest of the room.
+2 v goblin, +4 v giant, +2 underground
While Selena is combing the room high and low and getting more and more frustrated trying to unpuzzle the illusion in the room, Tunder, who believes in the over-sized bag of coins he is lugging around, cavalierly points out the two coin-sized slots in the wall on each side of the round pillar.
Even when shown the slots, Selena has a hard time seeing them again as they are truly well disguised in the stone work.
Selena claps Tunder on the back as he finds the small slits in the wall. Excellent work there Tunder. I could have spent all day here and never noticed them. Now we have something to work with. In fact I think you solved the mystery. I was looking at only 1 portion of the problem instead of the whole thing. After giving Tunder and kiss on the forehead she moves excitedly to the 'coin-sized' slits and dragging Tunder with her (if possible consider her 8 str and him being a dwarf).The stack of coins was not there to hide anything. It was there to give a clue as to what the slots are for.
Fumbling at her money pouch Selena takes 2 gold coins out and inserts 1 into the right hand slot.
As Selena slips a gold coin in each of the slots, the stone pillar, disguised to look like a pile of gold, grinds noisily down into the floor, revealing a hallway beyond.
The hallway is about 30' long north to south and has three sets of double doors off of it, one set to the north, one directly across from the descending pillar, and the last at the far south end.
"I did not expect that." Tunder checks each of the doors, [ooc]Take 10 on each for 22 total including the +2 for being underground.
If he finds nothing amiss, Tunder will open the northern door.
"Ai eleana! I am truly sorry to have doubted you, Selena. You've outdone yourself."
Seldon will take this time to cast bull's strength and remove fear on Barek.
"Whoa," Barek says as he watches the pillar sink into the floor. He pokes his head into the next room, then stepping into it. "Ok, three doors. Which way now?" He nods as Tunder goes to inspect the door to the north. He moves to prepare to enter.
Selena beams with pride at the praise from Seldon. Thank you. You were a help too. You said none of us may understand the mysteries of the ancients which forced me to think of other alternatives. Illusions is not my specialty so I admit to not understanding them as much. Yet here we are and the path is open before us.
Looking at the hallway and trying to decipher the size of the structure above them selena offers, We could head north first as there is less room that direction I believe unless it delves deeper below us.